Pilot Line Processing of Silicon Wafer Solar Cells using Industry-scale Equipment

Abstract The Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), founded in April 2008, is Singapore's national laboratory for applied solar energy research. The institute conducts industry-oriented research and development (R&D) as well as use-inspired basic research in the field of solar energy conversion. A cornerstone of the silicon wafer solar cell R&D at SERIS is a pilot line based on industrial equipment. SERIS has worked closely with industrial equipment vendors to build a pilot line that combines the flexibility required for R&D with the throughputs and process robustness required for production. By utilising industrial equipment SERIS is able to conduct industry relevant research with a direct roadmap to production, by rapid prototyping of novel solar cell structures and processes using production-proven tooling. The approach removes the need to migrate processes from lab-scale tools to the production environment, which commonly limits lab-to-production technology transfer and increases the risk of technology transfer. Moreover, SERIS’ industrial pilot line focuses not only on device-oriented R&D but also enables R&D programmes with equipment manufacturers to test new process tool prototypes and extend the capabilities of existing tool designs. The pilot line has been established on a short timeline and has quickly achieved good average efficiencies with standard industrial Al-BSF solar cells: 16.7% for multi-Si and 18.2% for mono-Si. This paper presents an overview of SERIS’ R&D pilot line for silicon wafer solar cells and its capabilities. We also present selected R&D results, including 18.3% inline-diffused mono-Si cells and 19% local Al-BSF mono-Si cells.